Waiting for the New Day

only lies down at night because

you've got to do something while

you're waiting for the new day

(StoryPeople)

In the past week, we have done a lot of laying down at night so that we could wait for the new day and the news that it would potentially hold. The six of us Jerusalem/West Bank volunteers are still waiting in Chicago and our visas are still in limbo. We awaiting the e-mail that informs us of our departure date. Everybody at the ELCA and ELCJHL(Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land) is doing everything they can, so in the meantime all we can to is hurry up and wait.

The wonderful flip side of all the waiting, is that it has meant some quality group bonding time and exploration of Chicago. Yesterday we got a chance to go to ELCA Churchwide offices. We got a tour of the building, we even got to see Bishop Hanson’s desk.

We also got to spend some time talking to Robert Smith and Julie Rowe of the ELCA’s Peace Not Walls campaign and got a wonderful opportunity to meet with three Palestinians who now work in the U.S. This time was a wonderful opportunity to have some honest conversation about some of the joys and challenges that we will encounter during the next year.

With each passing day, and conversation, I am getting more excited to continue this adventure and take off. So hopefully our visas will be released from limbo soon but in the meantime, I will continue to enjoy Chicago and lying down at night to wait for the news that the new day will hopefully hold.

The Summons

Will you come and follow me if I but call your name?

Will you go where you don't know and never be the same?

Will you let my love be shown? Will you let my name be known,

will you let my life be grown in you and you in me?

Will you love the "you" you hide if I but call your name?


Will you quell the fear inside and never be the same?


Will you use the faith you've found to reshape the world around,


through my sight and touch and sound in you and you in me?

(The Summons, Evangelical Lutheran Worship 798)

It has been a crazy rollercoaster of a week at Orientation. A week full of laughter, tears, deep conversations and jokes. But most of all, it has been a week of growing in community and getting to know each other, only to be scattered to the four corners of the earth. Yet, despite the scattering, we go knowing that the community we have formed this week will be a large part of our support system for the next year.

At our closing worship on Tuesday night, our hands were anointed, we sang one of my favorite hymns in the ELW, Will You Follow Me? (The Summons). I love the questions that it asks and the challenges it poses.

They are also the questions that I have been asking myself as I prepare to leave for Jerusalem. Am I ready to answer this call? Am I ready to go to another new place? Am I ready to grow and be changed? Am I ready to face my fears? Am I ready to follow the ELCA’s motto of “God’s Work, Our Hands”?

With these questions in mind, I said my good-byes to the 42 YAGMs who left yesterday as they boarded the shuttle to O’Hare. As I said these good-byes , the closing stanza of this song echoed in my head and it serves as my prayer, both for myself and for my fellow YAGMs, for the next year:

Lord your summons echoes true when you but call my name.

Let me turn and follow you and never be the same.

In Your company I'll go where Your love and footsteps show.

Thus I'll move and live and grow in you and you in me.

Listen to the full song on Youtube here.

Read the full lyrics here: Gospel Music Lyrics.

CHI-TOWN!!!!

As of my last post we did not yet have visa approval. So in exciting news, Heidi announced Thursday morning that she had received news that all of them have been approved! So we are now officially going!!!!!! We don’t have a departure date set yet, but it should be sometime in the next two weeks! Having this stress taken care of has allowed me to enjoy this orientation time.

It has been great to be back in Chicago for the past couple of days. It has been even better to be enjoying this amazing city with 49 other YAGMs and the wonderful YAGM alum team.

We have had a lot of quality time to hang out and get to know each other a little better before we each embark on our adventures in our respective countries. We have spent most of our days sitting through presentations about important information pertaining to our year of service. However, our nights have been left fairly wide open, which means amazing hang-out time.

Last night a group of us went to Grant Park to go Cajun dancing, which was a blast. It was great to listen to live music and watch people dance, and occasionally grace the dance floor as well. One of the best parts was that people were not shy about asking us to dance and even though we had no idea what was going on, most of the times they were pretty patient teachers and leaders.

DANCING CREW!

Tonight, the country went with the alums from our countries to have dinner. Well, we had to find our alums at the restaurants following some fairly cryptic directions (Take the 60/2+26-1 bus?), but we successfully navigated our way to Chickpea and ate AMAZING Palestinian food. (Falafel and hummus anyone?) The deliciousness of this food just makes me more excited to be going for a year!

I am pretty excited to be leaving and take off on this new adventure. I am pumped to spend the year with the 5 other amazing ladies who are going with me. We have had so much fun and laughter this weekend, and I am excited to continue that!

Amazing J/WB crew!

Quick Update

So in just a few shorts hours, I will be catching a plane to head to Chicago for orientation for the next year.

Unfortunately, there have also been some unexpected challenges in getting our visa, so my departure from Chicago to Jerusalem will be a bit delayed.

On the plus side, this means I get to spend a bit of extra time in the city I love!

As we move forward, I will post updates to let you know when the new departure date is, in the mean time prayers and positive energy toward the visa process would be greatly appreciated.

It's hard to say goodbye 'Cause baby, it's a good life

Two days. That’s it. Two days. 48 hours. 2880 minutes. 172800 seconds.

It seems like just yesterday when I was getting my assignment and celebrating that in three months I would be going to Jerusalem. Now we are down to two days.

As I think about saying see you later, to many of the things that I love, I am struck by the chorus and bridge of the Sugarland song “Small Town Jericho,” (which you can hear on Youtube here and find full lyrics here ),

Goodbye to mem'ries that I saved

Goodbye to all the friends I made

Goodbye to all the home I'll ever know

Small town Jericho...(goodbye)

And every road here looks the same

This ol' town won't ever change

And that's what I love the most

And it's the reason I must go

It is a challenge to say goodbye to all the things that I will miss about my small town, but I know that I have to go. Because I words don’t seem to do anything justice. These are the things I will miss:

Packing, Packing

Through an oversight (or else probably, if you think about , just plain politeness), they don’t weigh the passengers…We struck out for Africa carrying all excess baggage on our bodies. Also, we had clothes under our clothes. My sisters and I left home wearing six pairs of under drawers, two half-slips, and camisoles; several dresses one on top of the other, with pedal pushers underneath; and outside of everything an all weather coat. (The encyclopedia advised us to count on rain). The other goods, tools, cake-mix boxes and so forth were tucked out of sight in our pockets and under our waist-bands, surrounding us in a clanking armor. (Poisonwood Bible, pg. 15)

Just before returning home, I finished reading Barbara Kingsolver’s book Poisonwood Bible, which is a story about a family who goes to the Congo as missionaries. As they prepare to leave, they are struggling with keeping all of the suitcases under the weight limit as they try to bring all the "necessities" with them. Later in the book, they start to realize that all the things they carried over with them were none of the things they needed, and the things that they needed could not have ever been packed.

The whole book was an interesting read, and a great “How-not-to” manual for mission work. However, as I am packing up, and trying to fit my life for a year into two suitcases, a carry-on and a purse, the above passage, and situation, stands out to me. As I figure out what goes and what stays, I find myself slowly eliminating the non-essentials the big comfy sweatshirt, the extra running shoes, and the excess books that wouldn’t actually get read-and hoping I don’t forget something essential-my passport, my paperwork or my plane ticket.

As I go through this slow elimination process, I find that all the things I really want to take with me, cannot be packed in a suitcase, or hidden in my clothes for that matter-the friends, the family and the places that I love and cherish. But I know that I will take all of these with me in my heart and I am grateful for that.